Sunday, August 19, 2018

The author of "Pypee," "Omoo," "Pierre" and "Moby Dick" has a reputation on both sides of the Atlantic as a writer of strange novels, but it is a new thing for him to appear as the author of a volume of poems. As such, however, he has ventured to come before the public with a beautifully-printed volume entitled "Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War," published by the Harpers. We have had barely time to give the book a hasty glance, but are satisfied that it is of a far different character from that of the most of the published "poetry of the war," which has been entailed on us along with the national debt and other afflictions.

When this notice of Melville's Battle-Pieces appeared, publisher Philip Lynch was also "sole editor" of the Gold Hill Daily News. (Alfred Doten came on as associate editor the next year, in November 1867.)

"According to the Nevada historian Myron Angel, under Lynch the Gold Hill Daily News gained a reputation as 'the best-printed [paper] of any on the Pacific Coast.'"--Nevada Digital Newspaper Project

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

TO DANIEL SHEPHERD

Come, Shepherd, come and visit me:
Come, we'll make it A[r]cady:
Come, if but for charity.
Sure, with such a pastoral name,
Thee the city should not claim.
Come, then, Shepherd, come away,
Thy sheep in bordering pastures stray.

Come, Daniel, come and visit me:
I'm lost in many a quandary:
I've dreamed, like Bab’lon’s Majesty:
Prophet, come expound for me.
—
I dreamed I saw a laurel grove,
Claimed for his by the bird of love,
Who, elate with such dominion,
Oft cuffed the boughs with haughty pinion.
Indignantly the trees complain,
Accusing his afflictive reign.
Their plaints the chivalry excite
Of chanticleers, a plucky host:
They battle with the bird of light.
Beaten, he wings his northward flight,
No more his laurel realm to boast,
Where now, to crow, the cocks alight,
And — break down all the branches quite!
Such a weight of friendship pure
The grateful trees could not endure.
This dream, it still disturbeth me:
Seer, foreshows it Italy?
But other visions stir my head;
No poet-problems, fancy-fed —
Domestic prose of board and bed.
I marvel oft how guest unwined
Will to this farm-house be resigned.
Not a pint of ruby claret
Cooleth in our cellar-bin;
And ripening in our sultry garret,
Otard glows no flask within.
(Claret and otard here I name
Because each is your fav’rite flame:
Placed ’tween the two decanters, you,
Like Alexander, your dear charmers view,
And both so fair you find, you neither can eschew:
—
That’s what they call an Alexandrine;
}
Don’t you think it very damn’d fine? }
— Brackets serve to fence this prattle,
Pound for episodic cattle. —
I said that me the Fates do cripple
In matter of a wholesome ‘tipple” —
Now, is it for oft cursing gold,
For lucre vile,
The Hags do thus from me withhold
Sweet Bacchus’ smile?
Smile, that like other smiles as mellow,
Not often greets Truth’s simple fellow: —
For why? Not his the magic dollar?
You should know, you Wall-Street scholar!
—
Of Bourbon that is rather new
I brag a fat black bottle or two. —
Shepherd, is this such Mountain-Dew
As one might fitly offer you?
Yet if cold water will content ye
My word, of that ye shall have plenty.
Thanks to late floods, our spring, it brims, —
Will’t mind a crush * of goblet-rims?
I've told some doubts that sadly pose me:
Come then now straight resolve me.
Come, these matters sagely read,
Daniel, of the prophet breed.
Daniel Shepherd, come and rove —
Freely rove the fairy dells;
The one the Housatonic clove,
And that where genial friendship dwells.

Where Thorp reads "bird of love," the 1993 Northwestern-Newberry Edition of Melville's Correspondence edited by Lynn Horth has "bird of Jove." Of old the Roman Eagle, as in Dante:

... Never fire,
With so swift motion, forth a stormy cloud
Leap'd downward from the welkin's furthest bound,
As I beheld the bird of Jovedescend
Down through the tree; and, as he rush'd, the rind
Disparting crush beneath him; buds much more,
And leaflets.

But here in the poem "To Daniel Shepherd," Melville's "bird of Jove" signifies the Austrian Empire with its adopted symbol of the double-headed eagle, as as Dennis Berthold points out in American Risorgimento (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2009), page 190.

According to the memorial at Find A Grave, Daniel Shepherd (1820-1870) was born on July 22, 1820 and died on the same day and month fifty years later. Thorp says that Shepherd returned to Saratoga Springs, New York in 1861. Confirmed, along with the coincidence of Shepherd's death on "his fiftieth birthday," by the obituary published in The Saratogian on Thursday, July 28, 1870.

The Saratogian (Saratoga Springs, New York) - July 28, 1870

Death of Daniel Shepherd.

It is our sad duty to record the death of DANIEL SHEPHERD, Esq., of this village, which occurred on Friday morning—his fiftieth birthday. Mr. Shepherd was a native of this county, a son of Hon. William Shepherd of Clifton Park, and inherited superior ability. He was a graduate of Union College, and distinguished for his literary attainments. After his graduation he came to this village, and studied law with Hon. W. A. Beach, and subsequently became connected with him in the practice of his profession. About this time he married Miss Mary R. White, a step-daughter of Dr. John Clarke, of the Congress Spring, and soon after formed a co-partnership with Hon. Chesseldon Ellis, of Waterford, at the close of that gentleman's career in Congress, and they removed to New York to engage in the legal profession. He resided in New York, continuing his legal practice, something less than fifteen years, and returned to Saratoga in the spring of 1861, since which time he has lived among us.

Mr. Shepherd was no ordinary man. His abilities were of a high order. He was a fine scholar, and a learned and able lawyer; but his tastes and culture were more distinctly literary than professional, and his energies were largely devoted to literary work. He was a successful writer of newspaper stories, and achieved considerable distinction as the author of a work entitled "Saratoga; a tale of 1787," in which he delineated frontier life with a masterly hand. He possessed a fine personal presence, was eminently social and genial in his nature, and with his bright and polished intellect he combined advantages which few young men possess in so high degree. But unfortunately, while in New York, he embarked in business enterprises that failed to realize his expectations, and involved him in difficulties, which proved too much for his sensitive nature, exerting a depressing influence upon his mind, and he has been almost entirely withdrawn from active life since his return to Saratoga. He has left a wife and four children (three sons and a daughter,) and a large number of relatives and personal friends, to mourn his death.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

A treasure of Melville's writings and Melville scholarship, valuable as ever eighty years on, and now more accessible than ever since getting Google-digitized. First published by the American Book Company in 1938, Willard Thorp's Melville offers a generous selection of poetry as well as prose, including the first publication of Melville's 1859 poem To Daniel Shepherd.

At least one copy (from University of California) is available online courtesy of

The announcement of a new book from the pen of Herman Melville, is sufficient to attract attention. To those who have read Typee, and Omoo, no book authorized by Melville, can escape a reading. The subject of this work the "Confidence-man" is somewhat out of his usual vein. The scenes are taken from aboard a Mississippi steamer, and includes men and things as they occur and appear between St. Louis and New Orleans. It preserves a fine interest throughout.

As indicated on the masthead, The Nashville Patriot was then edited by William Henry Smith and Ira P. Jones.

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Five "Poems by Herman Melville" were posthumously reprinted from Timoleon (1891) in The Century Volume 44 (May 1892) on pages 104-105. Arthur Stedman selected Melville's poems "Art," "Monody," "The Night-March," "The Weaver," and "Lamia's Song," presenting them with reference to both John Marr and Other Sailors and Timoleon as "the last fruit off an old tree." Stedman's 1892 collection receives brief mention in the Northwestern-Newberry Edition of Melville's Published Poems, in the editorial notes on "Monody." Previously cited also by Howard Vincent in Collected Poems and Merton M. Sealts, Jr. in The Early Lives of Melville (page 54), but little discussed in Melville scholarship. The Contents section gives them collectively as "POEMS" under "Poetry" and names "Herman Melville" as the author.

Arthur Stedman receives due credit for the Introduction.

POEMS BY HERMAN MELVILLE.

[THE death of Herman Melville, which took place in New York soon after midnight on the morning of September 28, 1891, was the signal for an outpouring of articles on the life and writings of an author whose vogue had temporarily subsided, partly through his own self-seclusion. Melville has rightly been called the pioneer of South Sea romance, and his "Typee " and "Omoo" gained an international reputation at an earlier date than the writings of Lowell, although both authors were born in the same year—1819. These books, with "Moby-Dick; or, the White Whale," soon became classics of American literature, and are likely to remain such. They have been continuously in print in England, and new American editions are now in course of publication. Melville's art of casting a glamour over scenes and incidents in the South Pacific, witnessed and experienced by himself, has not been exceeded even by Pierre Loti. The Civil War first turned his attention to lyrical writing, and many of his "Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War" (1866) obtained a wide circulation. Near the close of his life he had printed for private distribution a few copies of two little books of miscellaneous poems, the last fruit off an old tree, entitled "John Marr and Other Sailors" and "Timoleon." From these volumes the following pieces have been selected.

Arthur Stedman.]

ART.

IN placid hours well pleased we dream
Of many a brave, unbodied scheme;
But form to lend, pulsed life create,
What unlike things must meet and mate:
A flame to melt, a wind to freeze;
Sad patience, joyous energies;
Humility, yet pride and scorn;
Instinct and study; love and hate;
Audacity, reverence. These must mate
And fuse with Jacob's mystic heart,
To wrestle with the angel—Art.

MONODY.

TO have known him, to have loved him,
After loneness long;
And then to be estranged in life,
And neither in the wrong;
And now for Death to set his seal —
Ease me, a little ease, my song!

By wintry hills his hermit-mound
The sheeted snow-drifts drape,
And houseless there the snowbird flits
Beneath the fir-trees' crape:
Glazed now with ice the cloistral vine
That hid the shyest grape.

THE NIGHT-MARCH.

WITH banners furled, and clarions mute,
An Army passes in the night;
And beaming spears and helms salute
The dark with bright.

In silence deep the legions stream,
With open ranks, in order true;
Over boundless plains they stream and gleam —
No chief in view!

Afar in twinkling distance lost
(So legends tell) he lonely wends,
And back through all that shining host
His mandate sends.

THE WEAVER.

FOR years within a mud-built room
For Arva's shrine he weaves the shawl,
Lone wight, and at a lonely loom,
His busy shadow on the wall.

The face is pinched, the form is bent,
No pastime knows he, nor the wine;
Recluse he lives, and abstinent,
Who weaves for Arva's shrine.

LAMIA'S SONG.

DESCEND, descend!
Pleasant the downward way,
From your lonely Alp
With the wintry scalp
To our myrtles in valleys of May.
Wend then, wend!
Mountaineer, descend!
And more than a wreath shall repay.
Come — ah, come!
With the cataracts come,
That hymn as they roam,
How pleasant the downward way!

Herman Melville.

A few years later the Kansas City Star reprinted "Monody" (October 16, 1894); "The Night March" (November 14, 1894); and "Art" (May 17, 1895).

Clement C. Moore, letter dated February 27, 1844 to Charles King, editor of the New York American
New York American (March 1, 1844) via Wikimedia Commons

LINES TO ST. NICHOLAS.— The following note from our friend C. C. Moore, the author of those lines which every child among us delights to hear, about Christmas, and which parents with not less delight recite, brings to our notice, one of the boldest acts of plagiarism of which we have any recollection. We ask the National Intelligencer to have the goodness to insert Mr. Moore's note—and if possible to elucidate the mistake, if such it be, or fraud attempted in respect of such well known lines.

New York, Feb. 27, 1844

Dear Sir—My attention was, a few days ago, directed to the following communication, which appears in the National Intelligencer of the 25th of December last.

"Washington, Dec. 22d, 1843.

Gentlemen—The enclosed lines were written by Joseph Wood, artist, for the National
Intelligencer, and published in that paper in 1827 or 1828, as you may
perceive from your files. By republishing them, as the composition of
Mr. Wood you will gratify one who has now few sources of pleasure left.
Perhaps you may comply with this request, if it be only for 'auld lang
syne.'"

The above is printed immediately over some lines, describing a visit
from St. Nicholas, which I wrote many years ago, I think somewhere
between 1823 and 1824, not for publication, but to amuse my children.
They, however, found their way, to my great surprise, in the Troy
Sentinel: nor did I know, until lately, how they got there. When "The
New York Book" was about to be published, I was applied to for some
contribution to the work. Accordingly, I gave the publisher several
pieces, among which was the "Visit from St. Nicholas." It was printed
under my name, and has frequently since been republished, in your paper
among others, with my name attached to it.

Under these circumstances, I feel it incumbent on me not to remain
silent, while so bold a claim, as the above quoted, is laid to my
literary property, however small the intrinsic value of that property
may be.

The New York Book was published in 1827 [1837].

Yours, truly and respectfully,

CLEMENT C. MOORE

Chas. King, Esq.

As stated in this 1844 letter, transcribed above, Moore was prompted to reassert his claim by a false attribution in the Washington National Intelligencer. When he wrote Charles King of the American on February 27, 1844, Moore did not know that the National Intelligencer had already corrected the error, as pointed out by the Washington editor on March 6, 1844. Moore subsequently included "A Visit from St. Nicholas" in his 1844 volume, Poems.

Below are listed some of the earliest known attributions of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" to Clement C. Moore, all made before Moore published his 1844 book of Poems with "A Visit from St. Nicholas" on pages 124-7.

1829

"A few days since the editors of the New York Courier, at the request of a lady, inserted some lines descriptive of one of the Christmas visits of that good old Dutch saint, St. Nicholas, and at the same time applied to our Albany neighbors for information as to the author. That information, we apprehend, the Albany editors cannot give. The lines were first published in this paper. They came to us from a manuscript in possession of a lady in this city. We have been given to understand that the author of them belongs by birth and residence to the city of New York, and that he is a gentleman of more merit as a scholar and a writer than many of more noisy pretensions. We republish the lines in a preceding column just as they originally appeared, because we still think of them as at first, and for the satisfaction of our brethren of the Courier, one of whom, at least, is an Arcadian." --Troy Sentinel, January 20, 1829; as quoted by Arthur James Weise in Troy's One Hundred Years (Troy, NY, 1891).

Deaths and Bereavement 1828-1830
Clement C. Moore's daughter Emily died in 1828, just six years old. In the year 1830 Moore lost his wife Eliza (d. 4 April 1830) and daughter Charity Elizabeth (d. 14 December 1830). Moore gave heartfelt poetic expression to his grief in a poem titled, To Southey. Any later recollection of Christmas joys experienced in 1822 when "A Visit from St. Nicholas" was originally composed would have been tempered by remembrance of lost loved ones.

New York American for the Country - April 9, 1830

DIED—

On Sunday evening, after a long illness, which she endured with Christian resignation and fortitude, Catherine Eliza, wife of Clement C. Moore.

The friends and relations of the deceased, and of her husband, are respectfully invited to attend the funeral to-morrow afternoon, at 5 o'clock, from No. 1 Charlton-street. --New York American, Monday, April 5, 1830; reprinted in New York American for the Country on Friday, April 9, 1830.

New York Evening Post - December 15, 1830

DIED.

On Tuesday, the 14th instant, Charity Elizabeth, second daughter of Clement C. Moore. The friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend her funeral on Thursday, at 1 o'clock, P. M., from No. 1 Charlton street.

1833-4 (New Year's Eve)
In a diary entry for December 31, 1833 Francis Prioleau Lee, a student at General
Theological Seminary in New York City, describes a holiday fair in Morristown, New Jersey featuring

"a figure called St. Nicholas who was robed in fur, and dressed according to the description of Prof. Moore in his poem." --quoted by Stephen Nissenbaum in The Battle For Christmas, fn 85, page 345.

1836

SANTA CLAUS, WITH HIS CHRISTMAS GIFTS.

The following lines appeared in print for the first time—though very often copied since—in the Troy Sentinel of Dec. 23d, 1823, which paper we then conducted. They were introduced, on that occasion, with the following remarks; which, as they continue to be a true expression of our opinion of the charming simplicity and cordiality of the lines, as well as of our unchanged feelings toward the little people to whom they are addressed, we repeat them, only observing that although when we first published them, we did not know who wrote them, yet, not many months afterwards we learnt that they came from the pen of a most accomplished scholar and and estimable man, a professor in one of our colleges....--Ontario Repository and Freeman - December 28, 1836; reprinted the following week in the Auburn Journal and Advertiser onWednesday, January 4, 1837. http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2016/02/more-testimony-from-orville-l-holley.html

New York American - Saturday, December 31, 1836

"As appropriate to the season, and because it has long circulated without a name, we also copy A Visit from St. Nicholas.--By Clement C. Moore." --New York American, December 31, 1836.

1837

The lines which follow have been much admired, and have appeared in a variety of publications, but never, we believe, before under the name of the real author--CLEMENT C. MOORE. --The American Monthly Magazine for January 1837.

Vermont Mercury - December 22, 1837

Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, Virginia), December 25, 1837:

Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, VA) Monday, December 25, 1837

"Our Juvenile readers will thank us for furnishing them, at this season, with the following clever lines.

We present each of you, therefore, with a copy of the following beautiful little poem, every word of which is as true as anything you can find in Philip Quarle, the Arabian Knights, or those most authentick of all historical narratives, the Fairy Tales of John Smith. It is written by Professor Clement C. Moore, who, in stealing leisure from the gravest and most important studies, for so light and graceful a production, has set an example which austere wisdom should oftener imitate among its solemn disciples:

MR. EDITOR:--Having noticed strictures on this excellent picture in some of the public prints, which convince me that the authors were not acquainted with the particular attributes and offices of the Dutch Saint, I have obtained a copy of the lines written by Clement Moore, of New York, which may have suggested, and certainly served in some sort as a guide to the painter in his performance. Nothing can be more mirth-exciting than the look of the venerable dona-ferens;--all the incidents of the scene are introduced with accuracy and effect, and the story is told in language not to be misunderstood. I send you Mr. Moore's verses for publication.
Yours,
P. --Boston Weekly Messenger, September 26, 1838.

From the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer on Christmas Day, December 25, 1838:

CHRISTMAS.

This being Christmas day, and Santa Claus (St. Nicholas,) the patron Saint of our Knickerbockers having filled the stockings of all the good little girls and boys of our city with appropriate Christmas presents; we cannot do them a more acceptable service, than by re-publishing for their especial benefit the following beautiful lines by Professor MOORE, descriptive of the little gentleman who is so deservedly a favorite with our youthful readers:--

Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer - December 25, 1838

The Vision of Rubeta by Laughton Osborn criticizes "the nursery rhymes of Prof. Moore" as "nonsense" and "trash."

"THE POETS OF AMERICA, Illustrated by one of her Painters, designed as an Annual for 1840. The selections are entire pieces from the best authors.--...The Culprit Fay, by Drake; Song, from Fanny, by Halleck...A Visit from St. Nicholas, by Clement C. Moore...." --New York Commercial Advertiser, December 19, 1839.

Two 1840 anthologies correctly attribute "A Visit from St. Nicholas" to Clement C. Moore. The Poets of America, edited by John Keese, credits "C. C. Moore" with authorship of "A Visit form St. Nicholas."

From the Daily Cleveland Herald of December 24, 1840; reprinted in the Cleveland Herald and Gazette, December 30, 1840:

1841

"This number contains two engravings. About the first, "St. Nicholas," designed by Mr. Ingham and beautifully engraved on wood by Mr. Roberts, so much has already been said by our worthy associate, Mr. Fanshaw, that nothing remains for us to add more than is contained in the following lines, written by C. C. Moore:

"The Brother Jonathan of this week is embellished, truly embellished with a capital engraving from Ingham's picture of Santa Claus, or St. Nicholas, in the act of descending a chimney from his sleigh, loaded with presents for the children's stockings--as graphically described in Professor Moore's Christmas poem. The mammoth sheet is well stored with a great variety of choice things. The picture alone is worth double the price of the paper." --Newark Daily Advertiser, January 2, 1841

"A Visit from St. Nicolas" reprinted with credit to "Clement C. Moore" in The Constitutionalist [Bath, New York], December 22, 1841.

The Pennsylvanian (Philadelphia, PA) - December 21, 1841

"KRISS KRINGLE'S BOOK.-- ... This is precisely the book for the young folks, stories, pictures and all, not forgetting the spirited lines by C. C. Moore, entitled "A Visit from St. Nicholas," which have been appropriately incorporated in this pretty and seasonable production." --Philadelphia Pennsylvanian, December 21, 1841.

We add below the following sprightly and popular effusion of an American poet: A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS. / By C. C. MOORE. -- Leesburg Genius of Liberty (Leesburg, Virginia), December 25, 1841 via NewspaperArchive.

1842

POETRY.

For the Maryland Republican.

MESSRS.
EDITORS:--Every child has heard of St. Nicholas, and has kept awake
many an hour to get a peep at him; but strange to tell, the little
Dutchman persists in travelling only in the night, and always manages to
fill the stockings of his good little children after their eyes are
fast closed in sleep; thus it happens that very few can boast of having
made his acquaintance. It seems, however, that one gentleman once had
this good fortune. Children and parents are much indebted to that
distinguished gentleman, (Prof. CLEMENT MORE, L. L. D. of New York,) for
having given to the world such a beautiful and (as we may well
suppose,) faithful description of a personage so universally clever, and
of such eccentric modesty. We need not remind any one, old or young
that this is the season when we may expect his annual visit. We wish him
a prosperous voyage hither, and should be right glad if he would land
first in our ancient and beautiful city. We have many large chimnies
here, very convenient for him, with many a long stocking, the filling of
which will materially lighten his pack. And in the mean time Messrs.
Editors, let the children have, by way of antepast, the 199th edition of
Prof. More's description of a visit from St. Nicholas, and oblige W....

Messrs. EDITORS: I perceive in your paper of the 25th instant that an extract from the beautiful little poem entitled "A Visit from St. Nicholas" is given to the pen of Jos. Wood. This is a mistake. It is well known to be the production of CLEMENT C. MOORE, of the city of New York, and is published as his in the volume of American Poems edited by John Keese.
Very respectfully, &c.
C.